The heart of the matter
by Shessa
Summary: how did the outsider get the heart of a living thing to mold by his own hands (short story)


jassemin kaldwin

the man grabed for her after he had backhanded her away. her mind was racing. there was pain but also a desperate strenght.

someone please help me she tought franticly.

the attacker grabbed her by the neck slower than she had anticipated she struggled out of his grasp and fell backwards. she could hear her heart pumping wildly. she screamed for guards. but there was no sound. looking at her attacker she saw that he was not moving he stood there frozen. she looked at dunwall tower or rather where it was suposed to be. there was nothing but void. she was on an island with her gazibo and the attacker, drifting in nothing .she got up off the ground and looked around.

this isn't happening.

she went to her daughter frozen like the others in the gazibo. she looked terrified but unhurt.

she had heard tales of this place or something like this. the void, lair of the outsider, the devil.

a shiver ran across her spine. did he bring her here to bargain for her soul. would she be strong enough to resist looked at her attacker standing there his hand outstreched and his sword ready to impale her.

would she give up her soul to get out of this situation?

something pulled at her and she turned around to face the void and there the darkness solidified into a modestly dressed man. but with eyes like pools of darkness. and he spoke.

Empress Jessamine Kaldwin, ruler of the isles. your end is near and you will not live to see the end of this turmoil. death will spread from the city of dunwall across the isles untill your isles will echo only in the silence of the grave. tell me Jessamine why did you come here?

a chill came over her she heard his words but more than that she felt them. they echoed from the future and past. its a trick she tried to tell herself. then the last thing he said caught her attention

come here? what do you mean. you made me come here.

she looked at looked human but he lacked the small movements of the men she hovered there unmoving, looking at her with those terrible eyes. eyes that made her more afraid the longer the silence carried on.

uneasy she added. i ... i don't want to die. she meant to say it business like, as to state a bargaining position. but it came out like a plea for mercy

Jessamine kaldwin unable to die and too scared to face what hide in the void and hope against hope for from those whom you dispise and fear.i am not the kind spirit you seek. my mercy is as cold as the northern seas. do you beg for your own life?

those eyes keept looking at her and his voice. panic crawled behind her will she could feel it in the pit of her stomach.

beg for my life?

she could not bear his gaze and looked away and looked at the frozen figure of emily. then she made her decision

yes i beg for my life. if thats what it takes, please save me. she tried for her most sincere tone but her voice was unsteady with fear.

your life cannot be saved Jessamine kaldwin. this last moment of your life frozen as you see it does not exist. you are still in the embrace of daud. his sword ready to pierce you when you leave this my gifts could not save you had i been incline to bestow them upon you. you have no choice but to accept this fate

anger flooded Jessamine kaldwin, she drank it in. anything for dispell the numbing fear. he had just been jerking her around with his questions and then he was gonna let her die like that.

you lie she screamed at him.  
you can do whatever you want i've heard the tales of your bargains. you've saved condemned people before. why not now. is my soul not worth enough?

he did not respond but she kept the fire of her anger stoked. she glared at him. accept my death... anger boiled at that thought

well fuck you .. i don't accept my fate

he looked down at her. his dark eyes drowning her anger.

then you stay here Jessamine kaldwin and become a ghost unable to let go of life. you will become an echo of yourself untill even this is snuffed out as you welcome madness into your soul and become a mindless howling abomination. or return to the world and face your fate. the choice is yours Jessamine

she could feel the strange pull she had felt when he arived lessening. he was leaving

no no..she couldn't let him go there must be something. something he wants.

no please don't go. she said as he was disapearing

please if you won't save me save my daughter. she could feel him stop and come back.

he looked down at her. she felt like something infinitely cold grabed her and lifted her of the ground she cried out. the cold was burowing into her and chilling the very core off her. the anger that had briefly burned was overcome and then it was gone. images flickered through her mind.

emily laying in a pool of blood, she lay on her belly her white garment soaking in the blood. the room is gaudy some fancy room with red wallpaper like some kind of brothel. she could clearly see her lifeless eyes looking. her mouth was half open and covered in blood. she had tried to breathe, but only blood must have filled her mouth and spilled out of her mouth covering her chin and much of her neck in blood. she can clearly see the stab wound in emily's back there are bloody smudges around the pool where she must have struggled

emily lay floating in the face was pale. her eyes open but unseeing. you could see emily's neck and notice dark smudges on there. bruises. someone had held her underwater and drowned her. her clothes were dirty like she had been playing in the dirt of perhaps hiding.

emily dead dressed in commen clothes in a abandoned house. her troat cut. eyes glazed. her

emily dead tied to a pole. riddeled with a fireing squad killed her

emily dead...dead...dead

the images keep comming more and faster. all of them unbearably cruel. all of them showing a different end to the life of emily kaldwell. and all of them showing a young corpse.

untill it ends and she drop to the floor. her feet do not support her and she falls. laying there the tears come to her eyes. no she tells herself i must not show weakness to this monster. i must not...

but the tears will not be stopped and as the tears flow down her cheeks the cold disapates from her soul, slowly. she finally gets control of her emotions stops her sobs and tears, rubs her eyes. she looks at him with no hope left.

his dark eyes look down on her.

emily kaldwin's fate is a thing almost set in stone. the death of the isle seems to requires the death of young emily as well,it would seem. you wish to change this fate and it can be so if you are willing to become a mere tool,to suffer more than you already have. the only thing that can save emily kaldwin is your heart, give me that and there is a chance that she will live past this fragile time.

she looks at the outsider.

why do you refuse to help me but you will help me save my daughter? she asks him.

he just keeps looking at her. why does he not anwser. she feels sick all those images of emily dead. she pushes herself into a sitting position.

please anwser me. she pleads. silence anwsers her. tears fall from her face again. she rubs her eyes dry and stands up. straightens her shoulders

my heart.. take it outsider. take my heart. she says resigned

she feels pain, a sharp pain in her chest like being stabed in her heart. she could hear the grunt of the assasin as the blade went through her. she could feel all the strenght flow out of her. the assasin lets go of her neck and she falls to her knees and then she lays on the floor. she is tired and she tried to move but there seems to be no strenght left in her entire body.

someone turned her over and she sees his face corvo.

corvo.. it's all ..coming apart .. find emily. protect her. your the only one. you'll know what to do won't you. corvo.


End file.
